As a fundamental and critical part of a successful cloud implementation, the network is poised for incredible leaps of intelligence. An intelligent network endows the WAN with the efficiency of cloud and and the confidence of a private network.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
TechWiseTV 117: The Cisco Cloud Intelligent Network
As a fundamental and critical part of a successful cloud implementation, the network is poised for incredible leaps of intelligence. An intelligent network endows the WAN with the efficiency of cloud and and the confidence of a private network.
A Photo Service That Understands the Contents of Your Images
Everpix organizes photos after analyzing them with software that can detect things such as animals, outdoor scenes, and people.
Browsing digital photos usually means scrolling through them chronologically, unless they have been sorted into folders and collections. This week a startup company called Everpix began offering an alternative: a system that uses machine vision software to analyze each photo for its content so that photos can be browsed using categories such as “city,” “animals,” “people,” and “nature.”
The category-based view, called Explore, is now a feature of the company’s iPad and iPhone apps. It joins an existing feature of those apps and the company’s website that provides a way to browse the “highlights” from a collection of photos in a particular year. Those highlights are compiled into a scrollable collage by software that looks for signals suggesting that a photo is high-quality and interesting.
Thanks in part to the ubiquity of smartphone cameras, many people’s digital photo collections now contain thousands of images. At that size, they are becoming unmanageable with conventional tools such as Apple’s iPhoto, says Pierre-Oliver Latour, CEO and cofounder of Everpix, which is based in San Francisco. “We’re building something to solve this big problem that is coming where people are going to have too many photos and they begin to miss out on them and neglect them,” he says.
Many people have already reached that point, says Latour. Since launching quietly in 2011, Everpix has attracted tens of thousands of users to its service, which until this week cost at least $49 a year. The average new user uploads more than 10,000 photos, from sources including Windows and Apple PCs, mobile devices, and Facebook accounts, says Latour. A new free tier of the service, launched this week, offers a user access to just the last 12 months’ worth of photos; paying $49 a year allows access to an unlimited number.
Most photo organizing software relies on time stamps and user-created categories and folders, although some, such as Apple’s iPhoto, Google’s Picasa, and Facebook, use facial recognition as a way to find photos of particular people.
Everpix does not use facial recognition, but in a demonstration at the company’s offices, Latour and cofounders Kevin Quennesson and Wayne Fan showed evidence that their software understands much more than the categories its software now exposes to users. The software can identify when an uploaded image contains plants, babies, animals, water, or snow, for example. A database of word meanings has been integrated into the system so it can understand other ways to refer to the label it’s applied to a photo.
The image analysis software was trained by having many thousands of images labelled by crowdsourced workers, and the new Explore feature correctly categorises photos most of the time. When it doesn’t, a user can provide feedback to help Everpix train its software further.
Latour says future features will take advantage of the deeper understanding his company’s technology can mine from photos. During the demonstration, a search interface developed for internal research purposes was able to accurately find photos in response to queries such as “city photos with crowds from April 2012” and “city photos with people that are close to the camera.” Latour wouldn’t say whether that same interface would later appear in the Everpix website or apps.
A Nanofabrication Technique Doubles Hard Drive Capacity
A Nanofabrication Technique Doubles Hard Drive Capacity
Laboratory advance shows that nano-imprinting could help the hard drive industry meet its long-term goals for data storage capacity.
Researchers at HGST, a major manufacturer of hard disk drives, have shown that an emerging fabrication technology called nano-imprinting could be used to double the data storage capacity of today’s hard disks. They say the patent-pending work, done in collaboration with a company called Molecular Imprints, could lead to a cost-effective manufacturing process by the end of the decade.
Hard disk drives store data in magnetic material on the surface of a spinning disk. During production, this material is deposited as a thin film. Information is then written to the disk by changing the magnetic orientation of distinct individual units of the material, known as “grains.” A group of grains together make up a region that can store a single bit. Since the 1950s, when the technology was invented, hard disk manufacturers have continually found ways to keep increasing data storage capacity by reducing the area required to store a bit, most recently by using fewer and fewer clustered grains for each.
Hard disk drives store data in magnetic material on the surface of a spinning disk. During production, this material is deposited as a thin film. Information is then written to the disk by changing the magnetic orientation of distinct individual units of the material, known as “grains.” A group of grains together make up a region that can store a single bit. Since the 1950s, when the technology was invented, hard disk manufacturers have continually found ways to keep increasing data storage capacity by reducing the area required to store a bit, most recently by using fewer and fewer clustered grains for each.
Now the industry is running up against limits to this strategy, partly because the particles’ magnetism becomes less stable when they are very small, a phenomenon known as superparamagnetism. “If I take a permanent magnet and I make it small enough, it becomes nonmagnetic,” explains Currie Munce, vice president of HGST Research.
here are also physical limits how small the recording regions can be. “If you continue to try to push these magnetized areas closer and closer together, they finally reach a point where they can feel their neighbors to such an extent that they have a tendency to flip over,” explains Grant Willson, a materials science professor at the University of Texas at Austin. That causes data loss. Willson is a cofounder of Molecular Imprints, although he was not involved in this research.
Researchers have known for years that patterning a disk with physically isolated, nanoscopic magnetic dots makes it possible to pack in more information than applying the material as a continuous film. The challenge has been developing an economical way to manufacture disks with the precise nanoscopic patterns in the circular tracks needed for the recording head to do its work.
The HGST researchers announced at last month’s SPIE advanced lithography meeting that they had used their proprietary nano-imprinting process to pattern a disk substrate with 10-nanometer-wide dots, closely packed and in circular tracks. They showed that a recording head can read and write information from these dots, and they reported that their process could print 1.2 trillion “magnetic islands” per square inch—enough to store about a terabyte on a 2.5-inch disk, which is double the capacity of today’s devices. (The most spacious drive currently sold by HGST can store four terabytes of data.) Since the dots can be made even smaller, the method would in theory allow for several more generations of capacity gains.
Researchers have known for years that patterning a disk with physically isolated, nanoscopic magnetic dots makes it possible to pack in more information than applying the material as a continuous film. The challenge has been developing an economical way to manufacture disks with the precise nanoscopic patterns in the circular tracks needed for the recording head to do its work.
The HGST researchers announced at last month’s SPIE advanced lithography meeting that they had used their proprietary nano-imprinting process to pattern a disk substrate with 10-nanometer-wide dots, closely packed and in circular tracks. They showed that a recording head can read and write information from these dots, and they reported that their process could print 1.2 trillion “magnetic islands” per square inch—enough to store about a terabyte on a 2.5-inch disk, which is double the capacity of today’s devices. (The most spacious drive currently sold by HGST can store four terabytes of data.) Since the dots can be made even smaller, the method would in theory allow for several more generations of capacity gains.
Nano-imprinting, a technique that first emerged in the mid-1990s, consists of applying a soft material to a surface and then stamping it with a hard material covered with specific patterns. The resulting imprints then guide modification to the surface, such as etching or deposition of additional material. The soft material is then removed, leaving only the new designs on the original surface. The magnetic recording and semiconductor industries both view the technique as a promising solution to the puzzle of how to reliably manufacture structures and patterns smaller than about 20 or 30 nanometers.
To design their stamp, the HGST researchers used molecules called block copolymers, which can be engineered to line up in repeating patterns on a treated surface—a technique called “directed self-assembly.” “We think we can implement [the process] in manufacturing,” says Munce.
HGST’s engineers will also focus on making the dots as small as physically possible (See “Fabrication Trick Offers Fivefold Leap in Hard Drive Capacity”). Munce says around 15 or 20 years from now they will run up against another size limit. By then, he says, provided several further refinements to the technology, “I may have bought myself another factor of 20 in capacity gains.”
HGST’s engineers will also focus on making the dots as small as physically possible (See “Fabrication Trick Offers Fivefold Leap in Hard Drive Capacity”). Munce says around 15 or 20 years from now they will run up against another size limit. By then, he says, provided several further refinements to the technology, “I may have bought myself another factor of 20 in capacity gains.”
Gadget Gets Under the Hood to Bring Analytics to Driving
A $70 device will tell you how efficiently you’re driving, and can even call 911 for help in the event of an accident.
You probably have a rough idea of how much you spend on gas each week, but chances are you don’t calculate the cost of each trip down to the penny. Unless you’re Ljuba Miljkovic, that is, who knows that in a recent week he spent $7.50 to drive over 47 miles.
Miljkovic is a cofounder of Automatic, an automotive tech startup that offers a small gadget that connects to your car’s onboard computer and wirelessly transmits the data it collects to your smartphone. This can reveal how efficiently you’re driving, how much individual trips are costing you, and tips for solving potential engine troubles. It can also determine where you parked your car and, if its built-in accelerometer senses you’ve been in an accident, call 911 for help.
The device combines two burgeoning trends—the “Internet of things,” where traditionally offline gadgets are connected to the Internet to amplify their usefulness (see “50 Disruptive Companies 2013: Nest’s Smarter Home”), and the mining of data that’s collected by our devices for meaning (see “Every Step You Take, Tracked Automatically”). By putting these two together, the company thinks it can get users to conserve gas and spend less—and make a profit itself while doing so.
“Your car is a black box today. You don’t know anything about it,” cofounder Thejo Kote says. “Using the information that is already there, and just presenting it in a useful way to people can have a really big impact on behavior and hopefully help people save money.”
Automatic grew out of research conducted by Kote and another of the company’s cofounders, Jerry Jariyasunant, while both were in graduate school in the systems engineering department of the University of California, Berkeley. Specifically, it blossomed from the realization that most people don’t really know anything about their cars, or about how much it really costs to drive, Kote says.
Automatic’s gadget plugs into the diagnostic port of your car—an outlet below the steering wheel of every car sold since 1997 that connects to the vehicle’s onboard computer and is used mainly by car mechanics for identifying and solving problems. The device will be available for people to preorder starting Tuesday, for $70, and will start shipping in May.
Phil Magney, who leads automotive electronics analysis at market researcher IHS, says the market for products that attach to your car’s diagnostic port and transmit data to your smartphone is growing. He adds that Automatic’s emergency-calling feature is a shrewd addition, giving it the ability to compete against telematics companies like OnStar.
The first step is to plug the device in and pair it with an Automatic app on your phone. When you start your car, the device will begin reading data—such as your speed—and send it to your smartphone via Bluetooth. That data is uploaded to Automatic’s servers for processing, and then sent back to the app in more user-friendly formats such as a driver score, on a scale of 1 to 100, that considers how often you brake hard, accelerate rapidly, and drive over 70 miles per hour (three factors that have a large impact on fuel efficiency).
A diagnostic feature can give you advice about what may be wrong if your “check engine” light comes on, and also enables you to turn the light off. A “beta” 911-calling feature uses the device’s built-in accelerometer to detect a car crash and notify Automatic to robocall your nearest 911 center with your name, car type, and approximate location.
Since the in-car device doesn’t have GPS—a decision Miljkovic says helps keep costs down—the app occasionally uses the phone’s GPS to reconstruct trips, determine where you parked, and estimate how much trips cost (the 1.4-mile trip to my office costs 33 cents, Miljkovic says). When you stop driving, the app automatically logs your location. And the device can tell when you add gas to the car, and which gas station you stopped at.
Initially, the company will offer only an iPhone app, since the two latest iPhones support low-power Bluetooth, but Kote says Automatic plans to release an Android version in the fall.
Sven Beiker, executive director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford University, says that while there are similar products on the market and in development aimed at “green” driving, Automatic’s solution is inexpensive and looks uncomplicated to use, which could help it catch on. “Very often if just the interface is appealing and easy to use, people will start changing their behavior,” he says.
Here’s Where They Make China’s Cheap Android Smartphones
Apple and Samsung, beware. Practically anyone can make a smartphone these days.
A little over a year ago, 38-year-old entrepreneur Liang Liwan wasn’t making smartphones at all. This year, he expects to build 10 million of them.
Liang’s company, Xunrui Communications, buys smartphone components and then feeds them to several small factories around Shenzhen, in southern China. There, deft-fingered workers assemble the parts into basic smartphones that retail for as little as $65.
Manufacturers built about 700 million smartphones last year. But the market has taken on a barbell shape. On one side are familiar names like Apple and Samsung, selling pricey phones for $300 to $600; on the other, several hundred lesser-known Chinese brands supplied by a thousand or more small factories.
The change began in 2011, when computer-chip makers began selling off-the-shelf chipsets—the set of processors that are the brains of a touch-screen phone. Those, plus Google’s free Android operating system, made smartphones much easier to produce.
The flood of inexpensive devices could hurt struggling phone makers like Nokia and might also force Samsung and Apple to offer cheaper models. “They have reached their peak,” Liang said during an interview near his office in Shenzhen, which has become a hub for electronics makers. “In [manufacturing] technique we are close to the same level. Then the only difference will be the cost and the brand.”
Larger Chinese companies, like Lenovo and Huawei, have also swarmed into China’s market with midrange phones that cost closer to $200. Lenovo captured 12 percent of China’s market last year.
Liang’s phones are the ultracheap kind. He builds them at several Shenzhen factories, like Shenzhen Guo Wei Global Electronics, a nondescript building that opened in 1991 as a manufacturer of fixed-line phones and audio equipment. At Guo Wei, young Xunrui engineers lounge about, smoking cigarettes and drinking warm Coca-Cola while playing games on various brands of laptops.
One floor up, past a metal detector and an enclosure where high-pressured air blows dust and other impurities off workers’ blue smocks, are the production lines—five of them, each with 35 young workers able to solder together and box up 3,000 smartphones a day.
Guo Wei has had to make some investments to get into the smartphone game, including importing new solder inspection equipment from Korea. One production line costs around $1.6 million to set up, according to Li Li, a production manager at the factory who showed off the equipment.
“The techniques are very complicated compared to older phones,” says Li, who joined the factory 17 years ago to work in a department that repaired fixed-line telephones.
But the real reason for the switchover to smartphones was that last year large chip makers, including the Taiwan-based MediaTek and Spreadtrum, started offering “turn-key” systems: phone designs plus a set of chips with Android and other software preloaded. Spreadtrum says it may sell 100 million units this year.
Each chipset costs $5 to $10, depending on the size of a phone’s screen and other features. In total, Liang says, his cost to make a smartphone is about $40. He says he can manufacture as many as 30,000 smartphones a day for brands such as Konka Mobile and for telecom operators like China Unicom.
In the United States, a smartphone’s high cost is generally masked by wireless companies, which discount them steeply if consumers agree to a contract. In China that happens as well. Liang says his phones retail for about $65 or $70 but can cost only $35 with a contract.
That is making China, now the world’s largest smartphone market, a challenging place for foreign firms to compete. Apple accounts for 38 percent of U.S. smartphone sales, but its share in China is 11 percent and falling. Google has even bigger problems making money. Even though the devices use Android, they often don’t come with Google’s apps and search tool installed (see “Android Takes Off in China, But Google Has Little to Show for It”).
Liang says his aim is to make smartphones that are affordable, even if they aren’t yet as good as an iPhone. That means the camera and LCD screen might not be the best, and the battery life could be shorter. “I always use this word ‘acceptable,’” he says. “A lot of users only need an acceptable product. They don’t need a perfect product.”
What’s certain, Liang says, is that the quality of the phones his factories produce will rise. “There is no profit at the bottom,” he says. “Everyone is trying to improve their techniques.”
Su Dongxia assisted with interpreting and research.
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